420 with CNW — Records Show Arizona Crossed $100
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State data has revealed that Arizona’s recreational cannabis market passed the $100 million sales threshold in March. The state legalized recreational cannabis in 2020 via the Safe and Smart Arizona Act, allowing the purchase, possession and use of recreational cannabis by adults aged 21 years of age and older.
It took Arizona a little more than a year after legalization to reach $100 million in adult-use cannabis sales, with recreational marijuana sales tripling medical cannabis sales over the last three months. According to the Arizona Department of Revenue, the state’s medical marijuana market has averaged $30 million in sales every month. Recreational cannabis sales in March were close to $101 million, increasing by more than $10 million from the $86.5 worth of recreational cannabis sold in April.
Cumulative sales for both recreational and medical cannabis reached $100 million in March 2021 with $59 million in recreational cannabis sales and more than $473 million in medical cannabis sales. Although overall cannabis sales in Arizona have surpassed $100 million every month since, March 2023 was the first time recreational cannabis sales alone breached the $100 million mark.
While recreational cannabis sales have seen an upward trajectory since March 2021, medical cannabis sales have been on a steady decline since peaking at $73.3 million in April 2021. Medical cannabis sales in July 2021 were under $40 million, and they have ranged from $33 million to $28.6 million from September 2022 to February 2023 when Arizona saw its lowest month of medical marijuana sales since it started reporting sales figures.
On the other hand, Arizona residents bought $93.4 million worth of recreational cannabis in December 2022, $91.3 million in January 2023 and $84.5 million in February 2023 before breaching the $100 million mark in March.
Arizona is already earning millions of dollars in tax revenue from cannabis sales, with the recreational market providing $15.4 million in revenue and the medical market providing $10.4 million. The state levies a 16% excise tax on adult-use cannabis sales and a 6% sales tax on medical cannabis while local governments charge an extra 2% on all cannabis sales.
According to the report, 30% of the total taxes collected from cannabis go to community college and provisional community college districts, 31% goes to public safety programs, 25% to the Arizona Highway User Revenue Fund and 10% to the justice reinvestment fund.
The sales numbers represent the enduring consumer demand for recreational cannabis around the country. States such as California, which have had legal recreational cannabis markets for much longer, are now home to behemoth markets that sell billions of dollars’ worth of adult-use cannabis each year.
These thriving markets for cannabis have created additional opportunities for entities such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX), which see a gap in the availability of the supplies that actors in the marijuana industry need.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACTX
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